14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no longer a surprise that developers choose to abandon Windows phones because of the small number of users, and pretty much every single time they point to the small (and declining) market share of the platform as the reason for switching focus to Android and iOS.
The latest to do it is Readly, a service that provides access to magazines from all over the world in exchange for a monthly fee. Readly admins revealed that Windows apps would be abandoned in February as a result of the low usage, choosing instead to concentrate all development efforts on platforms where this all makes sense, including iOS and Android.
Additionally, an announcement provided this morning reveals that Readly would also continue supporting their Kindle app, and although for some Windows phone users this might be super-frustrating, it makes sense to be this way given the fact that Readly is primarily a magazine reading app.
“We’ve decided to close the Windows version of the Readly app. Unfortunately the number of customers using the Windows version doesn’t motivate the effort for maintaining the app so going forward we’ve decided to work harder on developing our iOS/Android/Kindle apps and our web service instead,” the company’s announcement reads.
“You can always switch to iOS or Android”
Just like all developers leaving Windows Phone, Readly recommends users to turn to their browsers to continue accessing the service, at the same time pointing to Android, iOS, and Kindle as platforms that benefit from better developer support.
“Fortunately you can still read your favourite magazines with the Readly apps for iOS, Android, or Kindle Fire devices which we will continue to develop and improve to give you the best user experience possible. If you don’t have access to any of these devices our web service (https://go.readly.com/) is your best alternative,” the same announcement continues.
Unfortunately, even though not many people were using this app on Windows phones, every single developer leaving the platform is a big loss for Microsoft and its mobile platform. And what’s worse is that the number of devs doing that is continuously growing and the software giant is doing nothing about it.